Many years ago, my husband received a phone call from a long-distance telephone carrier. “Is this Mr. Lewis?” asked the representative.

“Yes,” my husband replied.

“Would you be interested in switching to Xyz long-distance service?”

“No, thank you.”

The representative thanked him and hung up. To our surprise, our next phone bill revealed that we had been signed up with the alternate long-distance carrier.

Furious, my husband called the phone service and asked them what the hell they thought they were doing, switching carriers without our permission. “But we have your permission,” protested the representative. “We have a verbal confirmation that you wished to change carriers.”

You guessed it – we had been “slammed” when this alternate long-distance service took my husband’s “Yes” (in confirming that he was indeed Mr. Lewis) and cut-and-pasted his vocal reply into a false affirmation that we wished to switch long-distance carriers.

Needless to say, we switched back to our original carrier and locked in our service. We later heard that the long-distance carrier had a class-action lawsuit against it for its tactics.

Slamming is a common procedure among those who are desperate for something, whether it’s obtaining new customers or garnering votes in the upcoming election. In other words, unethical companies (or candidates) will sink to the lowest level possible – including slamming – to obtain customers or influence voters.

It’s becoming more apparent that incumbent liberal politicians are in deep doo-doo with regard to the upcoming Nov. 2 election. Elections (for both parties) have always been about smearing one’s opponent, but this year the depths to which incumbents are sinking would be comical if it weren’t so nasty.

“The smell of desperation and fear now hangs over the Left,” notes commentator Craige McMillan. “The Left’s agenda is a failure. With health-insurance rates skyrocketing, coverage shrinking and jobs evaporating, Democrats now campaign: Not on their accomplishments – for they’d rather we didn’t remember. Not against Republican and tea-party ideas – for Democrats bring the same old tired, socialist failures to the debate. But instead they campaign with lies, innuendo, smears and character assassination.”

But it doesn’t seem to be working. Voters are increasingly undeceived by the empty promises made by all politicians. Since incumbents can’t run on their records, their only option is to spread some slime.

Take the case of Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, who was caught making television ads in which he cut-and-pasted a speech his opponent, Daniel Webster, gave to make it seem as if Webster was a punitive religious fanatic. Grayson’s only hope appears to be that there are enough shallow sheeple gullible enough to swallow his nonsense.

Or take Oregon’s Rep. Peter DeFazio, who is selectively culling items and events from his opponent Art Robinson’s life to make Robinson seem like a “dangerous wacko extremist.” There are dozens of similar cases cropping up all over the country.

The common hope for these politicians, what they’re counting on, is the sheeple will believe their lies and vote for them. In other words, they hope the stupid people will turn out in force.

The tea party has become a popular target among the progressives, who are terrified that their wealth-distribution schemes may be disrupted. Because the tea party’s biggest platform is greater fiscal responsibility and less government intrusion, somehow that is interpreted (and widely reported) by the progressives and their lapdog media to mean we want to reinstate Jim Crow laws. They utilize the ever-popular “racism” lie without realizing that their accusations are merely a mirror they refuse to face.

“Liberals believe government, and plenty of it, is the only way racial minorities can survive in America,” notes columnist Christopher Grey. “They think that without special help from the government, minorities would be unable to get jobs, have health care, feed their kids, go to school or do much of anything.”

The prevailing (if unsaid) attitude among liberals seems to be, “Awww, the poor widdle minorities … they need our help to get out of bed in the morning.” Meanwhile, tea partiers are yelling, “Get busy and accomplish those things on your own!” – because they believe anyone CAN achieve these things if left to their own creativity and ingenuity … unless they’re handicapped by government entitlements, of course.

So who has greater faith in individual initiative and who is working harder to preserve human dignity? Yet the accusations of racism continue. And the worst thing about being labeled a racist, as Burt Prelutsky notes, is that denying it gets you nowhere.

In a political cartoon by Steve Kelley, a pollster asks a couple, “Which candidate’s fictitious accusations best match your preconceived mindset about his opponent?” The slime tactics employed by both sides of the political spectrum are old hat and should no longer fool anyone, yet they do.

As long as there are gullible sheeple willing to believe the manure slung at opponents in the weeks leading up to Election Day (rather than doing their own independent research and deciding on which candidate most accurately reflects their personal beliefs), politicians will continue to lie and lie and lie. Isn’t it nice to know that the primary qualification for public office these days is which candidate is the more believable liar?

I would never switch my phone service to a long-distance carrier that lied to get my business. I would also like to claim I would never vote for a candidate who so shamelessly lies about his opponent’s views, opinions or past actions – but unfortunately that’s impossible. All I can do is vote for the candidate who lies the least.

Barring outright election fraud, only time – specifically, 10 days – will tell whether these slime tactics are successful or not.

Yet I’m optimistic. The existence and growth of the tea party demonstrates that lies are no longer working like they used to. The truth may yet set us free.